The probe comes as an investigation by The Sunday Age can reveal The Shane Warne Foundation raised $1.8 million in three years but donated an average of only 16 cents of every dollar to institutions that care for sick and underprivileged children.

Financial records obtained by The Sunday Age show the spin bowler's personal charity has instead spent the majority of its funds from 2011 to 2013 staging glitzy celebrity events and employing a member of the cricketing great's family.

In one year, Shane Warne's brother Jason drew a salary of nearly $80,000 but the fundraiser only dispersed $54,600 to its beneficiaries.

The documents also show more than $300,000 was spent on catering, alcohol, merchandise and prizes for events at the same time the foundation was posting steep financial losses.

The foundation's mission statement is to "raise funds to help enrich the lives of seriously ill and underprivileged children and teenagers in Australia", dispersing money to organisations such as the Starlight Foundation and Clown Doctors, as well as to individual families.

The revelations come amid growing concern among regulators that Australia's charity sector is experiencing a  massive blowout in fundraising and administration costs and a proliferation of groups competing for a limited supply of funds.

The foundation's events, which attract a who's who of the wealthy and influential such as James Packer, Piers Morgan and Eddie McGuire, include the annual Joe Hachem & Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament, Charity Cricket Cup and Footy Finals Luncheon.

Shane Warne has previously said in media interviews more than $8 million has been raised for charity since TSWF was established in 2003.

But the foundation does not release its financial records and is not listed with the national regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, which has stringent public disclosure requirements.

The Sunday Age obtained The Shane Warne Foundation's records for 2011-13 by compelling their release under an obscure provision of Victoria's Fundraising Act.

Financial records for later years were either missing or unavailable for viewing.

The 2011-13 financial documents show the foundation donated just $281,000 to charity despite raising $1.8 million over that time. Expenses consumed more than $1.2 million.

It means only 16 cents of every dollar raised actually reached one of the foundation's nominated charities over those three years.

By comparison, men's health charity Movember reported that 86 per cent of funds raised were actually spent on charitable endeavours, while the Red Cross spent 76 per cent.

The splurging on large-scale events also led Warne's foundation to run at a financial loss for two years in a row, and the funds paid out for actual charitable endeavours dropped nearly 70 per cent from $177,000 in 2011 to $54,600 in 2012.

This decline came after the foundation had already slashed donations from $458,316 in 2010.

The reduction in payments to beneficiaries – accompanied by a sharp cut to expenses – saw the foundation's bottom line improve to $494,345 in 2013, but they still chose to distribute only $50,000 to charities that year.

Shane's brother Jason was the general manager of the foundation from 2011 to 2013. The former sports manager-turned-real estate agent was paid more than $210,000 over this time, with the charity sometimes spending more on his annual salary than was distributed to charitable institutions.

In early 2013, former Crown Casino poker operations manager Jonno Pittock took over the top job, receiving a salary of $43,750 while the foundation donated just $50,000 that financial year.

The current state of TSWF's finances is unknown. No financial report was made available for 2014 or 2015 despite The Sunday Age's application in September under the Fundraising Act.

The foundation's general manager, Emma Coleman, initially said no report had been produced for 2014 because no "distributions" were made by the charity and the 2015 report was still being prepared by auditors.

In late October, TSWF asked The Sunday Age for three weeks to prepare and provide the reports ahead of publication of this story.

But in a bid to forestall revelations about its financial affairs, the foundation on Friday issued a media statement to the Herald Sun claiming an overhaul at the foundation had reassured regulators and allowed its fundraising licence to be renewed.

"They (Consumer Affairs) were satisfied with the explanation and with steps we had taken to address the issues and went on to grant the licence," she said.

But Consumer Affairs Victoria told The Sunday Age it is conducting an investigation of the foundation.

"Consumer Affairs Victoria is concerned about a number of inconsistencies in The Shane Warne Foundation's reporting and accounting practices and is looking into this matter," a spokeswoman said.

"The Shane Warne Foundation has advised it has had a number of staffing changes and has sought a meeting with Consumer Affairs Victoria to seek further information concerning their fundraising and record keeping obligations."

The lack of disclosure comes despite the foundation hosting a slew of high-profile national and international events such as a gala dinner at Lord's Cricket Ground and Ashes Charity Golf Day in London, Boxing Day Test event and a charity auction involving Lance 'Buddy' Franklin.

A roster of new fundraising ambassadors also joined the foundation including AFL stars Brendan Goddard and John Worsfold, comedian Stephen Curry, and radio personality Fifi Box.

The foundation has also established lucrative sponsorship and partnership agreements with Mercedes-Benz Brighton, Etihad Airways, Cricket Victoria, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Crown Casino, Triple M, clothing retailer Glenmuir and travel group italktravel.

Another entity linked to The Shane Warne Foundation – known as the Necessitous Circumstances Fund – did donate a further $145,000 directly to the families of needy children in 2013 and 2014. However, the fund's income was only $115,000 so it posted a financial loss in 2014.

No records for this fund were available for 2015.

Ms Coleman declined to comment on Friday but threatened legal action against The Sunday Age. "This is bullying and harassment," she said.

Ms Coleman later said the foundation had distributed 30 per cent of funds to its nominated charities in 2014, which was well above the 4 per cent required by legislation. It also met the requirements for renewal of its charity license in September 2015 without conditions.

"I am happy to state that at no time has myself or any other TSWF staff been contacted by Consumer Affairs Victoria stating they are under investigation," she said.

In a written statement, Shane Warne and the board of the foundation said they were "very proud" of its work donating to over 125 different children's charities.

"However we are obviously disappointed with the recent performance of the Foundation. Although profitable, the Shane Warne Foundation has not been able to distribute as much money as it would have liked over the last two years."

The statement said the executive responsible for the Foundation's performance was replaced in September by Emma Coleman "with the view that the Foundation needs to both increase revenue and reduce costs".

The board of the Shane Warne Foundation is packed with Australian business and entertainment luminaries, including Eddie McGuire, Seek.com founder Andrew Bassat, Crown executive Ann Peacock, and TV personality Glenn Robbins.

Elizabeth Hurley, Russell Crowe, Karl Stefanovic, Campbell Brown and Michael Clarke are among many of the foundation's patrons and ambassadors.

Shane Warne, Ann Peacock, Andrew Bassat, and Jonno Pittock did not respond to a request for comment. Eddie McGuire and Jason Warne declined to comment.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has recently been staging a crackdown on groups that don't file annual financial reports, threatening to revoke the registration of more than 8000 charities for failing to meet their obligations.

cvedelago@theage.com.au